Two tipsters sent an e-mail telling us GameStop is taking reservations for Otomedius Excellent. I followed up by walking into a GameStop and reserving a copy. According to the retailer, Otomedius Excellent is available for Xbox 360 and scheduled to come out on September 8. It’s a full price game at $59.99. We realize retail listings aren’t always accurate and the dates or price may differ, but a game this obscure wouldn’t be appear in a database as an error, would it?

Unless they’re including all the DLCs from the Jpn marketplace, $60 is way too much. Otomedius is considered one of the least fun among all the current shmups on 360 (the character voices are really annoying :(..). I played a little and sold it on ebay… unless they do a faceplate bundle or something like Deathsmiles, but I probably still don’t want it.. Otherwise Otomedius should probably be priced at $30 game at most. I would pay more for Senko no Ronde 2 than this.

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

So, you wouldn’t recommend it? After looking at some gameplay footage it looks okay. Animation is fluid, enemies and scenery mix up a bit – I prefer vertical shooters, but this looks okay from what little I’ve seen.
If anything (and this is the case I have with shooters from way back), the pace seems a little sluggish.

I haven’t played it, but Palsoft’s “Magical Chase” looked like it had the perfect balance in pace (of both yourself and enemies) and controls – you could also choose between three settings, an option I wish most shooters had.

Aoshi00

Hm.. Personally I found it to be quite slow and boring and it’s not as fun as Gradius, Parodius, etc.. the animation was pretty lazy too, such as the mermaid boss at the first stage, I couldn’t believe there was only like 2 frames of animation it’s like a still shot.. The music was very repetitve, it’s always the same music, I was put off by how much stuffs were sold as DLCs, like levels, ships, and soundtrack, it was like for $70 the game gave you just the bare minimum and all the DLCs were mad expensive.. that’s why I said for $60 here they better include everything but even then it’s just not very fun for me. For the voices, it was like the same 5 to 6 actresses voicing both the good girls and bad girls, again seems lazy to me..

I like horizontal shooters if they’re like Deathsmiles, I prefer detailed 2D sprites than cheap looking 3D models, I’m still wondering if I should get Deathsmiles 2.. Magical Chase was Cotton right, I remember playing it a long time ago.

They should really put Sexy Parodius or Sengoku Blade on PSN/XBLA or something.. still waiting for Guwange…

Kris

Cotton and Magical chase are very similar thematically (both have you play as a broomstick-riding witch, but they’re different games). Cotton 2 is one of my favorite shooters ever though, and it is gorgeous.
It’s a shame that Otomedius is so ugly though, since I absolutely love Mine Yoshizaki’s art style…

Aoshi00

Yeah the 3D in the game looks very simple and ugly, definitely nothing like the drawings by the Keroro Gunso guy. I’m afraid Deathsmiles 2 looks a bit similar to that in 3D this time..

M’iau M’iaut

The name change to ‘excellent’ would make me think it’s gonna be more than the initial JP release. Price point I can bitch at a bit, but it is definitely a title that can fall under the ‘pay a premium’ — which isn’t really a premium when you consider the US junk that releases at that price point. And while one may be able to play a little chicken and hope any remaining copy drops to $19.99 like Senko did; I’d say konami (or whomever ends up being the publisher of record) will be a bit more limited in the release this time.

Kris

Sounds awesome, but $60? Maybe for Parodius, but not Otomedius…

BrotherCavil

I have bid final farewell with Gamestop and their retarded reservations when they screwed me over today with Starcraft II.

Frak you, GS. Frak you.

*Amazons OE*

doubleO7

Awsome! Ive always wanted to try this game. Too bad I dont have an Xbox yet. $60 seems a bit pricey though. But by the time I finally get around to buying an Xbox, this will probably be much cheaper than that.

But whats up with the names? Excellent? Gorgeous? Its just like Slayers! Whats next? Otomedious Return, Great, and Premium? :P

http://whatistheexcel.com/ Excel-2012

Following the Slayers pattern, the next one should be Otomedius Special or Otomedius Revolution.

doubleO7

Oops, forgot about Special and Revolution. This makes me wonder if Konami is naming Otomedious like this on purpose as a nod to Slayers, or if its just a huge coincidence?

http://honorless.net honorless

Yeah, that really sounds like a placeholder price. When the real MSRP gets announced, I’ll…

…probably wait until the inevitable super ultra bomba, then scoop this up from a bargain bin.

Artavasdus

Of course I could be wrong, but I don’t think it will be printed enough to became a bargain bin item, even if its sales bomb.

nyobzoo

$60 for a SHMUP is way too expensive imo, When they can easily be beaten in 2hrs and looks like a PS2 game

and the thing is that the PS3 is getting 4 SHMUP this month, all on the PSN store and all under $20 and mostly likely be just as good/better as these $60 SHMUP games

Artavasdus

Shmups aren’t the kind of games that ends after credit-feeding one time through the levels, the fun in them lies in understanding the bullet patterns, the scoring systems and the other gameplay mechanics and in improving one’s skills. If you play them properly they can be more lengthy than many jrpgs (if you want to master one taking your skills at superplay levels it may even take years depending on the game).That said, this particular shmup isn’t so enticing. I played it a lot when the japanese version came out (I even bought the special arcade stick, silly me), but in retrospect it surely isn’t one of X360′s best shmups, not by a long shot.

nyobzoo

oh I know how to play SHMUP, hence why I even know the term but still, $60 when I can do the same with Ikaruga on XBLA or Soldner X on PSN both for $10. They’re just being greedy releasing it with a $60 price tag, which I personally don’t agree that it’s worth that much anymore.

Aoshi00

Depends on how you judge a game’s worth, by the amount of fun it gives you or by graphics and such. If people have no problem paying $60 for FFXIII, played it once and done w/ it, while one can enjoy and continue to play a shmup for years, what isn’t it worth that price? If these weren’t ported to console, one would have no way of playing them other than buying the arcade boards anyway. Personally I don’t mind the full retail price for these games, if extra work has been added, like Deathsmiles, Mushihime-sama Futari, or Espgaluda 2 having modified graphics and original modes, I wish they could’ve done the same thing to Dodonpachi Daioujou or Ketsui, but I still bought them anyway. Otherwise yes, for straight ports w/ no modification at all, they’re a bit overpriced. For a game as good Deathsmiles, $50 is pretty much a bargain even w/o the goodies thrown in. When Ikaruga first came out on Dreamcast and later on Gamecube, they weren’t exactly cheap either.It’s all subjective, some people don’t think Assassin’s Creed 2 is worth full price and won’t get it until it dropped to $20. If they were to port shumps like Sengoku Blade and redo the sprites, I’ll gladly pay $70 to import it. If you truly are a fan of shmup, I think you would agree.

For Otomedius particularly, like Artavasdus said, no it’s not that great of a game..

Justinzero

Woot! Another reason why I’m happy I didn’t make the Japanese 360 plunge. $60 spent here is $300 saved on Ebay.

Interface23

still not reserve-able on Amazon or Gamestop.com :(

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